~The Spirit Bender~

Story Time With Suyin

Once the meal was finished, Anima and Korra went for a little wonder and walked into a room with a small model of the city "its amazing how this entire city is made of metal" Korra says as she touched the model "do you think Toph would be impressed with how far metal bending had come?" she asked her girlfriend who thought for a moment "I'd say yes and no, she'd probably say it's ok but on the inside she'd be bursting with joy" Anima says as she lightly slapped Korra's hand away from the model.

Korra rubbed her hand a little with a pout as she saw Suyin at the door "you know, before I buit this city, there was nothing here" she says entering the room "I wanted to make my mark on the world" Su then sat on one of the couchs, crossing one of her legs over, Anima and Korra sat on the opposite couch to Su "its truly amazing, Auntie Su" Anima smiled as she glanced back to the model, admiring it, Suyin smiled a little, thinking how her sister gave birth to such a pleasant and humble daughter "thank you, Ani. You're too kind"

"I'd like to thank you for being so welcoming, and I'm sorry for how Lin's been acting" Korra apologied with a sincere look "what actually happend between the two of you?" Anima asked, wanting insight on how she didn't know she had an amazing aunt till a few hours ago.

Suyin sighed as she leaned back into the couch "it's complicated" she started "we didn't have a normal childhood. Being kids of a lesbian couple didn't exactly give us an advantage" Suyin started playing a bracelet she had on her left wrist, Anima noticed it had watertribe markings on it "with Toph been the chief of police and Cara been half Avatar, they were busy most of the time and even when Toph had time, she gave us lots of freedom because she grew up in a strict house, she thought we would find our own paths" Suyin then glanced down again

"that sounds like a good thing" Korra commented as Su shrugged "in a way, it was. But me and Lin always wanted Toph's attention, even though we already had Cara's, we wanted both but in the end we lost both of them" Su looked down before playing with the watertribe bracelet again "Cara thought we didn't need her because she tried so hard to give us what we wanted, but all me and Lin did was turn away and hope for Toph to actually pay attention to us" both Korra and Anima saw little tears coming from Su's eyes but the older woman quickly wiped them away as she continued with her family history lesson.

"Lin followed in Toph's footsteps and became a cop, I was more of a rebel. Toph wasn't too happy with how either of us turned out, but Cara-" Su stopped a second as she took a breath, her eyes closing a second "she said she was proud of us, saying no matter how we turned out she'd always be proud" Su wiped more of her tears as they came, Korra and Anima went over to the earth bender and comforted her "but me and Lin just brushed it off, what we wanted was Toph's approval and we broke Cara trying to get it" Anima was shocked to hear that her grandmother went though all of that, she couldn't imagine the pain Cara must of felt.

"when I was 16 I left home to explore the world, I knew it would deviate Cara but I still left knowing it would and sailed the seas on a pirate ship joined a traveling circus for a while, and lived in a sand bender commune in the desert" Su listed making the two girls admire how much she'd done in her life, but Anima felt more sad for her grandmother.

"it took me a while, but I finally realised what I was looking for was a family, so I bought this plot of land, found a brilliant architect who later became my husband, and created a place I could truly call home" Su finished, taking a breath as she calmed down from her little cry.

"it looks like you've created a perfect life for yourself here" Korra says making Lin sigh "almost, I've always wanted Lin and Cara to part of it, but I gave up hope long ago of Lin ever coming around, I didn't know why Cara didn't want to come, but now I know it's because of you Ani" Su smiled before standing up "it was nice to talk to the both of you, but I'm needed else where" Su then walked out of the room leaving the two girls alone to take in all she had said.

"no wonder Gran Gran was sad when I was little" Anima leaned back into the couch, remembering the look in Cara's eyes, she remembered the sadness they held, she thought it was just because she  lost Sokka and Aang in such a short time but having a family life like that made Anima realise that Cara was more broken then she realised, but the old woman put on a strong face.

"listening to that gave me an idea, why don't we try to get Lin to stop being moody by getting Opal to try and get her to open up" Korra got up from the couch, Anima looked at her confused "what can Opal do that would convince the stubborn cheif of police to stop being moody?" Anima asked her girlfriend but Korra just grabbed the girls hand and pulled her along "I don't know but it's worth a shot, I know you don't like your mom being like this" Anima knew that Korra was right, ever since they got here the purple eyed girl has hated her mother's mood so they went to get Opal and try to get Lin to open up.

The three of them where outside Lin's room and Anima was nervous as Korra knocked on her door "who is it?" Lin unhappy moody voice could be heard from the door, Korra opened it "hey, it's me. I brought someone who want to talk to you" Korra opened the door even more to reveal Opal, Lin looked unimpressed but folded her newspaper and harshly put it in the table "you wanna talk, then talk" she then leaned back in the chair with her arms crossed.

Opal hesitated for a second but Anima nodded before Opal took a breath "I'm sorry being here had been so hard for you" Opel then walked next to Lin's chair "When you showed up, I was so excited to get to know you. I'd heard so many great things about you from Mom, Grandma and Gran Gran" Opel then turned her gase to the floor "so, I guess I was kind of sad that you didn't wanna get to know me, believe me, I know my family can be a little crazy and overwhelming sometimes, but I would love it so much if you would be part of it"

There was a long silence as Lin closed her eyes "get out" Opel jumped a little scared and nervous that she said something wrong "sorry. Did I say something wrong?"

Lin's gase turned more angry "get out!" she yelled, Tears came to Opal's eyes as she ran out of the room, Anima following her, Korra angrily looked at the old earth bender "what's your problem? Don't get mad at Opel I asked her to talk to you because I thought it would help you snap out of whatever funk you're in, but I guess I was wrong"

Lin stood up quickly with a frustration in her eyes "why don't you focus on fixing the world and stop trying to fix my family!?" Lin yelled but Korra just placed her hand in her hip "Su's right. You're never gonna change no matter how much Anima thought you did. You're always gonna be a bitter, lonely woman" Korra then left the room shutting the door.

Lin placed her hand on her face as tears began to fall from her eyes "I'm sorry  Anima" her voice strained out as she cried, knowing she's probably ruined her relationship with her daughter forever by regressing to her old self and taking out her issues with her sister on everyone.